Virgil Abloh, who died this Sunday at the age of 41, was one of those designers who understand fashion as something far beyond the merely aesthetic, who frees himself from prejudice to unleash creativity at its best.

Abloh became one of the most influential people in fashion in the last decade and he did so by challenging established masculine codes to open a debate on the new masculinity. Can the tracksuit be the new office outfit? The creative had it clear and both through his time at the historic maison Louis Vuitton and at his own firm, Off-White, he made urban fashion the new tailor's suit.

Trained as an architect and with extensive experience in the music sector, the creator became known as a creative adviser to the American rapper Kanye West, whom he met in 2009 when he was working as an intern for Fendi. A year later he worked hand in hand at the rapper's creative agency, DONDA, where he was in charge of the image and concept of his album Watch The Throne.

Shortly after, he would start his own journey in the sector with his first brand, Pyrex Vision, in 2011. This small “streetwear” sewing project was based on buying cheap Ralph Lauren clothes and then printing his designs and selling them again at affordable prices. above 500 dollars.

An overwhelming proposal that became popular among different artists on the international scene at the time, such as Asap Rocky, Kanye West himself or Jay Z. With this, Abloh did not intend to get rich, nor to turn his brand into a world reference, but rather to carry out an artistic experiment and , surely, social, to lay the foundations of the firm that would take him to the top of success.

Off-White, the great luxury streetwear brand, Abloh's mature project. Founded in 2013 in Milan, Italy, the same designer defined it as “the gray area between black and white”. A year after founding the brand, he launched the first collection in the competition organized by the LVMH group, the LVMH Prize. There he was selected as a finalist, an award that would later open a door for him within the luxury group.

Abloh's success perfectly explains the radical change of course in the luxury industry. The artist dared to break with classical conventions and create collections that were seen on the streets back then but not in a fashion week.

Sports shoes, caps, sweatshirts and oversize garments with a casual air were worn on the catwalk as something that went far beyond a passing trend. It was not the first time that a brand considered to be luxury had incorporated street elements, but it had claimed it as haute couture. "The shirt is the starting point," he said. "The big houses may know how to sew a dress, but they can't design a life-saving graphic T-shirt."

The shirt is the starting point"

Abloh also understood fashion as a tool for social denunciation. The urban culture around skate and with influences of hip-hop that he grew up with since childhood was the great starting point for him. He wanted to elevate that lifestyle, so racially discriminated, to give it a new social status with which to change the perception of luxury that the consumer had until then.

In March 2018, he was craving a new and exciting challenge: the creative direction of the Louis Vuitton menswear line. The creative thus replaced Kim Jones at the head of the firm and thus became the first black man to lead the luxury house.

As the famous Stan Lee saying goes, "With great power comes great responsibility", and Abloh knew that his time at Vuitton could be the great confirmation of the streetwear revolution.

So it was. He took his passion for urban fashion and mixed it with reading the classic tailoring of the luxury house. This translated into high-impact collections that would soon be seen on red carpets. Timothée Chalament entered fashion history with the styling with which he attended the 2019 Golden Globes, the work of Virgil Abloh. A shiny black harness adorned his black shirt, an example of that new masculinity to which the creative alluded so many times.